Arthur Colley Wellesley, 1.º Duque de Wellington, KG GCB GCH PC FRS foi um marechal e político britânico, primeiro-ministro do Reino Unido por duas vezes.
Wellesley foi nomeado como alferes no exército britânico em 1787. Servindo na Irlanda como ajudante-de-campo para dois sucessivos Lordes Tenentes da Irlanda, ele também foi eleito como membro da Câmara dos Comuns do parlamento irlandês. Como coronel em 1796, Wellesley esteve em ação na Holanda e depois na Índia, onde ele lutou na Quarta Guerra Anglo-Maiçor na batalha de Seringapatão. Ele foi nomeado governador de Seringapatão e Maiçor, em 1799, e como major-general recém-nomeado obteve uma vitória decisiva sobre a Confederação Marata na batalha de Assaye em 1803.
Wellesley aumentou sua relevância como um general durante a Guerra Peninsular das Guerras Napoleônicas, e foi promovido ao posto de marechal de campo depois de liderar as forças aliadas na vitória contra os franceses na batalha de Vitória em 1813. Após o exílio de Napoleão Bonaparte em 1814, atuou como embaixador na França e foi-lhe concedido um ducado. Durante o Governo dos Cem Dias em 1815, ele comandou o exército aliado que, junto com um exército prussiano sob Blücher, derrotaram Napoleão na batalha de Waterloo. O registro de batalha de Wellesley é exemplar, em última análise, participou em cerca de 60 batalhas durante o curso de sua carreira militar.Wellesley era famoso por seu estilo de adaptação defensiva de guerra, e um extenso planejamento antes de batalhas, o que lhe permitia escolher o campo de batalha e forçar o inimigo a vir a ele, que resultaram em várias vitórias contra uma força numericamente superior, minimizando suas próprias perdas. Ele é considerado um dos maiores comandantes de defesa de todos os tempos, e muitas das suas táticas e planos de batalha ainda são estudadas em academias militares ao redor do mundo.
Ele foi duas vezes o primeiro-ministro pelo partido tory e supervisionou a aprovação do Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. Ele foi primeiro-ministro entre 1828 e 1830 e serviu brevemente em 1834. Foi incapaz de impedir a aprovação do Reform Act 1832 mas continuou como uma das principais figuras na Câmara dos Lordes até à sua aposentadoria. Ele permaneceu comandante em chefe do Exército Britânico até à data da sua morte.
Wikipedia
“Espanhois, dedicai-vos a premiar os incansáveis galegos.”
Españoles , dedicaos todos á premiar á los infatigables gallegos
Historia razonada de los principales sucesos de la gloriosa revolucion de España, Volume 4 - página 62 http://books.google.com.br/books?id=52h5HeZQQBQC&pg=PA62, José Clemente Carnicero, Editora Imprenta de D. M. de Burgos, 1815
“I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.”
On Napoleon Bonaparte, in notes for 2 November 1831; later, in the notes for 18 September 1836, he is quoted as saying:
It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
As quoted in Genetic Studies in Joyce (1995) by David Hayman and Sam Slote. Though such remarks have often been quoted as Wellington's response on being called Irish, the earliest published sources yet found for similar comments are those about him attributed to an Irish politician:
The poor old Duke! what shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
Daniel O'Connell, in a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Shaw's Authenticated Report of the Irish State Trials (1844), p. 93 http://books.google.com/books?id=dpKbWonMghwC&pg=PA93&dq=%22+make+a+man+a+horse%22&num=100&ei=0YVZSIWXCIiSjgG37bGIDA
No, he is not an Irishman. He was born in Ireland; but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
Daniel O'Connell during a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Reports of State Trials: New Series Volume V, 1843 to 1844 (1893) "The Queen Against O'Connell and Others", p. 206 http://books.google.com/books?id=zWETAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT108&dq=%22+make+a+man+a+horse%22&num=100&ei=MohZSJ-PK4a4jgG-lLGJDA
Variants: If a man be born in a stable, that does not make him a horse.
Quoted as as an anonymous proverb in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899), p. 171
Because a man is born in a stable that does not make him a horse.
Quoted as a dubious statement perhaps made early in his career in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (1992) edited by John Simpson and Jennifer Speake, p. 162.
Misattributed
“Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!”
On the coming of the railways, in The Birth of the Modern (1991), by Paul Johnson. p. 993.
“I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they terrify me.”
Said to be his remarks on a draft of new troops sent to him in Spain (1809), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1942) by H. L. Mencken, this quote is disputed, and may be derived from a comment made to Colonel Robert Torrens about some of his generals in a despatch (29 August 1810): "As Lord Chesterfield said of the generals of his day, "I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do."
Disputed
“Uxbridge: By God, sir, I've lost my leg!
Wellington: By God, sir, so you have!”
Exchange said to have occurred at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), after Lord Uxbridge lost his leg to a cannonball; as quoted in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
Variant account:
Uxbridge: I have lost my leg, by God!
Wellington: By God, and have you!
Thomas Hardy, in The Dynasts, Pt. III Act VII, scene viii, portraying the incident.
“Circumstances over which I have no control.”
Phrase said to have first been used by Wellington, as quoted in notes for 18 September 1836
I hope you will not think I am deficient in feeling toward you, or that I am wanting in desire to serve you, because the results of my attempts have failed, owing to circumstances over which I have no control.
As quoted in The Life and Letters of Lady Hester Stanhope (1914) http://www.archive.org/details/lifelettersoflad00clevuoft edited by Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Powlett, Duchess of Cleveland
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
Queen Victoria, concerned about the sparrows that had nested in the roof of the partly finished Crystal Palace, asked Wellington's advice as to how to get rid of them. Wellington’s reply was succinct and to the point, Sparrow-hawks, Ma'am. He was right, by the time the Crystal Palace was opened by the Queen in 1851, they had all gone!
Fonte: Historic UK http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Duke-of-Wellington/
“Not at all. If I had lost the battle, they would have shot me.”
Wellington's retort when he was asked if he felt honored at being feted as a hero by the people of Brussels after returning victorious from Waterloo, according to Sir John Keegan's chapter on Wellington in his book The Mask of Command
Letter to John Wilson Croker (29 December 1835), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. II (1884), p. 288
Letter to John Wilson Croker (30 September 1833), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. II (1884), p. 218
Remarks to John Wilson Croker (20 October 1825), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. I (1884), p. 353
Letter from the field of Waterloo (June 1815), as quoted in Decisive Battles of the World (1899) by Edward Shepherd Creasy. Quoted too in Memorable Battles in English History: Where Fought, why Fought, and Their Results; with the Military Lives of the Commanders by William Henry Davenport Adams; Editor Griffith and Farran, 1863. p. 400.
“They came on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same old way.”
Fonte: About the French attacks at the Battle of Waterloo, quoted in Roberts, Andrew (2010); Napoleon and Wellington; Hachette, UK; ISBN 0297865269.
Statement (1838), quoted in John Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. I (1903), p. 155
